


long live the king

by asiren (meliorismo)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 20:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12733530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meliorismo/pseuds/asiren
Summary: The three kings that built Ronan Lynch from scratch.





	long live the king

**long live the king**

 

**I.** _Glendower_

Ronan bites at his leather bracelet, staring at the ceiling, trying to count the sounds of Adam's steps against the floor. Two for the right, four for the left, one turn, seven to the right, wall, eight to the left, wall, and all of it again one more time.

Adam is anxious because Glendower is looking farther instead of closer, and the time is starting to look almost midnight. The metaphorical midnight. Adam is anxious because Cabeswater knows that bad things are coming, fast, blunt, and it doesn't know that these things are, less of all what to do when they arrive. Adam is also anxious because he made a promise to look for a king that died ages before Adam was even born, in the hope that this king would be alive and well, waiting to be found, without ever really believing all this crap. Adam is anxious because that light at the end of the tunnel is starting to look like a train.

Ronan sighs — one, two, three times — and decides to go up the stairs. A dead king is still a king, Ronan knows, and he will remember Adam of this if the need arises. A dead king is still a dream, if all come to that.

A dead king is what started their story — history —, and perhaps he will be the end of it, it may be true, but it also may not. It's possible that life continue after they find Glendower; it's possible that life continue even if it never happens.

It's possible that they will still be alive to _see_.

 

**II.** _Richard Gansey, III_

Gansey is a king, and all his immediate circle of friends is his court.

In this noisy concert where everything is threating to go downhill really fast all the time, Ronan is left walking over the tightrope between stepping over the limits just enough to blur them, but not to erase all at once. Between ignoring just enough to walk away and not the sufficient to be the one left behind. Between showing himself as bad, but never evil, all the while pretending that he isn't being anything but his most truthful self.

Ronan hates how good he is at this.

Ronan also hates how tired he is getting over keeping all the pieces rolling in the air.

(how long lasts a second?

the secret is always to survive one at a time)

 

 **III.** _Adam Parrish_

Adam trained himself to look ignorant — dumb — for so long, and with such competence that he even convinced Ronan that it was true. It's maybe something about the way he looks at you, kind of by the side, or about the way he stops, projecting distance; it has to be something like that, because it sure as hell isn't about his physical appearance, and it isn't about the personality, so what it is that is left? Ronan needs to point at it, precisely, what exactly could have fooled Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish-related stuff expert; what made him think that something about Adam could be less than perfect.

When Adam does something like that, it's exactly like what would feel seeing a king dressing up as common folk, and managing to fool the whole kingdom. Like the sun went to hide behind a planet, all the while saying _this is me. this orb without its own light. it is really me. no, no sun. just plain basic orb who isn't even a proper star._

It's unbelievable.

Even more pathetic is that Ronan is absolutely programed at the radio station that mutters Adam Adam Adam Adam ADAMADAMADAM ADAM A-D-A-M adam ADAM. He truly is. And it's really, really sad, because he was cautious his whole life, aware of every heart-related trap he could possibly fall into. Every single one, but fucking Adam Parrish.

How can you know if speaking up is worth the risk of losing the small, soft, halfway happy thing you already have?

Ronan looks at Adam the exact same way he has been looking at him for a year now; Adam looks back, the exact same way he has been looking at Ronan for even longer.

Adam Parrish is a king, king, king, and Ronan is going to love him to the end of the world and then beyond.

(after all, what can you do about suns, but staying the closest possible, very warm, maybe too much, all the while hoping that you may survive the experience?)


End file.
